Reported Scheme to Target Belgian PM Thwarted
Belgium's law enforcement have arrested three suspects accused of plotting an strike on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors characterized the alleged scheme as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and other elected representatives.
During raids conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, close to the prime minister's personal dwelling, officials found a suspected IED and evidence that the accused were preparing to deploy a drone.
While the prospective targets of the attack were not officially named by the federal prosecutors, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was one of them.
"Reports of a intended attack targeting PM Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," the deputy prime minister stated in a update on online platforms on the day of the arrests.
"It emphasizes that we are confronting a serious terrorist threat and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.
The three suspects taken into custody on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and involvement in the functions of a jihadist network all are based in Antwerp, per the federal prosecutors. They were born in the early 2000s.
On Thursday evening, one suspect was let go, while two others were under interrogation and scheduled to face a judge on the following day.
The prosecution revealed that the suspects were taken into custody after a court official directed searches of their dwellings in the urban area by police officers assisted by explosive sniffer dogs.
Throughout these raids that they found a object which appeared to be an IED, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a news conference on that day.
Raids also revealed a collection of ball bearings and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she added.
Fransen said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in the nation so far this year - surpassing the total number of cases in the previous year.
In April, five individuals were convicted for a previous year's plan to attack the prime minister while he was holding the position of Antwerp's mayor.
